Assign a Hotkey to Open a Terminal Window in Ubuntu

Since we spend so much time at the command line in Ubuntu, it sometimes makes it simpler to launch a new terminal window with a shortcut key.

Ubuntu has a built-in utility for assigning shortcut keys. Go to System \ Preferences \ Keyboard Shortcuts:

Scroll down to where it says “Run a terminal”, and click in the Shortcut column. When you see “New accelerator…”, the next keystroke that you use will set the keyboard shortcut.

I assigned Ctrl+Alt+X as mine…. one press of the key combination and up pops a terminal. What a time saver!

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. This article was written on 12/10/06 and tagged with: Ubuntu, Ubuntu Tips & Tweaks

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Comments (8)

1. May 1, 2007 11:28 pm
   Cliff

   Have you ever tried Tilda? It’s in the Ubuntu repositories and it’s an awesome Terminal that you can automatically pull up at the push of a button the default is F2. It’s what I use to have a terminal at my fingertips all the time.

2. May 2, 2007 7:10 am
   The Geek

   Cliff,

   http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....in-ubuntu/

   =)

3. May 28, 2007 11:51 am
   James

   Thanks so much, you are a life saver!!!

4. October 27, 2007 7:02 am
   Ken

   Hi, is it possible to somehow just doubletabs i.e. pressing a hotkey twice quickly as trigger for this (or for anything else for that matter). Some applications and tools on windows like autohotkey let us do that. Would be neat if it was doable on Ubuntu too.

5. May 9, 2008 6:30 am
   PReDiToR

   Yakuake. Tilda sounds a lot like it, but Yakuake uses the same schema and settings as your ordinary Konsole (openSUSE/KDE 3 here).
   Oh, I see this was mentioned twice in the other linked thread. Never mind =)

6. July 3, 2008 2:48 am
   Richa

   Thnx a lot………….was really useful

7. June 4, 2009 9:00 am
   Antonio

   Is there a way to make the terminal in the current directory?

8. June 10, 2009 10:39 am
   M@

   Don’t know why I hadn’t thought to do this, every other window I open is a terminal. Ctrl + space is mine. Thanks!

   Antonio, you might be thinking of something like this: http://www.gnome-look.org/cont.....tent=73250